The Spin

by dday

I think the media are talking themselves into this being a draw which is a win for Obama. Even though nearly half of the debate was on economic issues, the focus was supposed to be foreign policy, which was supposed to be some kind of strong suit for McCain. So there’s that kind of bias.

McCain obviously seemed contemptuous and would not look at Obama. There’s a likability factor that might loom large here. Expect the SNL parody tomorrow night, which for the bobbleheads does tend to set opinions, to focus on that.

On the other front, there’s this “I agree with my opponent on this point, but…” maneuver from Obama. Jamison Foser has a pretty good post about how saying “I agree with my opponent, but…” is a completely normal political construction. The winger correspondents are going to want to go wild with this (and expect a commercial with all of that in there) and I think the dumber pundits will agree, but it’s already being rebutted among some of the talking heads I’m seeing. We’ll see. Throughout the 2000 debates, the big focus was on Gore’s sighs. McCain sneered, chuckled, and was really pretty belligerent and angry and offended to be on the same stage as Obama throughout. The media has a choice to make whether to focus on that, or focus on this “I agree with John” business.

The polls seem to favor Obama, and I think the pundits are deciding to go with that since they didn’t have a clear picture.

…A possible X factor post-debate is the fact that Kissinger, indeed, did back direct talks with Iran “without conditions.” But the McCain campaign, sensing this, walked out a press release from Kissinger saying that he agreed with McCain, albeit on the narrow point of what level of staff should meet, which wasn’t the question.

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